Panasonic and Sony may lean a little further on the 3D
technology of LG Electronics, as it is cheaper that
Samsung's corresponding approach for 3D screens.
LG claims that its film-based 3D technology has clear
advantages over rival Samsung's battery powered option,
although arguments on technological competitiveness
continue.
"Panasonic and Sony are planning to expand the lineup of
3D-enabled TVs this year. The key point is that their
upcoming models will use LG's technology," said Nho
Seok-ho, head of LG Electronics' LCD TV division in an
interview with the Korea Times. "That's why we are sure
to increase sales of 3D TVs this year," said the
executive, the right-hand man of LG's TV chief Kwon
Hee-won.
Panasonic and Sony were initially ready to adopt
Samsung's technology but they've decided cut costs and
improve their bottom lines by using the cheaper version.
Sony has been selling 32-inch and 42-inch 3D TV sets with
film-patterned 3D technology in China since this year,
while Panasonic is relying more on LG for 3D screens for
several of its sets.
LG plans to add a 60-inch model to its 3D TV lineup of a
65- and 72-inch set in June to respond to consumer
demand, according to the executive. The company's 55-inch
OLED TV, which had been showcased at CES2012, is set also
to be introduced within the first half of this year,
priced at 8 million won ($7,080). LG believes that its "white
OLED" technology adopted in its OLED TV is also cheaper
to produce than Samsung's AMOLED technology, allowing the
company to better compete with Samsung's pricing.
Samsung's AMOLED technology mainly uses low-temperature
polysilicon (LTPS) LCD as the backplane. However, for
larger fabs, the company may consider working with oxide
silicon backplanes as an intermediary step before
new-generation low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS)
backplanes are available.
LGD's 55-inch AMOLED television panel uses a vertical
white-OLED (WOLED) pixel structure with a color filter.
The use of WOLEDs eliminates the need for an RGB mask,
resulting in improved efficiencies and increasing the
ease of making finer pitch pixels on the panel. However,
this approach needs an additional color filter. The oxide
silicon backplane of LGD's 55-inch TV likely will be
manufactured at LGD's existing eighth-generation a-Si LCD
fab.